


come on and raise up (take your shirt off)

by MeansToOffend (goodmorning)



Series: Pick Me Up (Again) [12]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 2013-2014 Liiga Season, 2014-2015 NHL Season, 2017-2018 NHL Season, 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, 2018-2019 NHL Season, Carolina Hurricanes, M/M, most of the story is offpage tbh, so many subsection titles, such a vague understanding of finnish christmas dishes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22246897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodmorning/pseuds/MeansToOffend
Summary: "That, in a nutshell, is his time with Sepe: meals, conversations, teamwork; steady, competent companionship."
Relationships: Sebastian Aho/Teuvo Teravainen
Series: Pick Me Up (Again) [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1180688
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	come on and raise up (take your shirt off)

**i. twist it round your hand**

He’s just a scrawny kid on the other side of the international-sized ice, until he isn’t. 

Liiga can’t hold Teuvo (can’t hold Jokerit, either, for that matter). He comes to America feeling hot, probably too hot for his own good, from the late-season captaincy, undaunted by their early playoff exit. Despite the fact that Chicago doesn’t win it all, he stays that way. It’s not like the Blackhawks could afford not to play him, even if they wanted to; they’re hard against the cap, and his ELC makes him a bargain option at twice the price.

They only keep him down for half a season. 

He doesn’t think twice about that scrawny kid, until he does.

**ii. from the front to the back**

He’s always been good in the playoffs; it feels easy to succeed. Pull back the shot, snap it home, and the Cup Finals come so smoothly it’s almost like preseason.

They win the Cup.

Teuvo takes it home for one single day and knows that can never be enough. He’s ready to go out and win it with this team - his brothers - again and again and again.

One year later, he’s traded to a Carolina team that hasn’t made the playoffs in what seems like forever.

Two days before that, a certain kid, one the locals would call a beanpole, signs his ELC with a Carolina team that doesn’t know what’s about to hit it.

**iii. we said we were coming**

He’s put together with Sepe immediately, not only as roommates but on the ice, too, and it works just as quickly. They both see the game the same way, always looking for openings, perfect or otherwise. They look for the pass first, waiting for others to get into position to finish the goals that are becoming second nature to set up. Each of them always seems to know where the other one is, perfect no-look passing as easy as breathing between them.

Also, they’re both a complete and utter mess.

“I’m really glad I don’t have to live with either of you,” Staalsy says one afternoon, when he sees what kind of absolute shambles their hotel room is in.

“I know where everything is,” Sepe pouts, and Teuvo has to agree, loudly, though it’s true that later he’ll discover several of Sepe’s things have made their way into his bag somehow. Still, it’s not a problem; it’s not even inconvenient, because they live in the same apartment building.

All he has to do is go down one level of stairs to return them. 

Actually, he travels downstairs often, or Sepe up, because it’s nice to eat together, to have company that can speak the language of their homeland. He hadn’t realized, last year, how much he’d missed it. It’s nice that now he doesn’t have to.

That, in a nutshell, is his time with Sepe: meals, conversations, teamwork; steady, competent companionship. There have never been any surprises between them, not since he figured out that they’ve been on-ice opponents before.

Until the day he makes Sepe laugh over breakfast, spitting out pancakes, and it hits him that he’s in love.

**iv. come and ask something stupid**

It’s nice to be playing meaningful hockey in May, right on Sepe’s wing. It would be nicer if it were playoff hockey, but Worlds will do.

Up until the quarterfinals, that is. 

They’re playing Switzerland, which should be - not an easy win, necessarily, but they’re still heavy favorites. And they play like heavy favorites, too, except for four minutes and five seconds.

Four minutes, five seconds, right in the middle of the game, is the difference between the expected win with the semifinal date against Canada or the impossible, crushing loss with the flight home too soon.

The whole Finnish team takes the same flight into Helsinki, excepting a few stragglers who want to spend more time in Denmark. When they arrive, most will have to make it to connecting flights; Sepe, for instance, has a two hour layover before his flight to Turku, and an hour-long drive from there to his parents’ house. 

He sits next to Sepe on the flight, but neither of them speaks. They don’t speak at takeoff, or landing, or during disembarking. They walk together to Sepe’s gate, very slowly. Sepe looks at him like there’s something to say, then turns away, hanging his head.

Teuvo grabs his arm. 

“I love you,” he blurts out, and lets Sepe go.

“I… I’ll call you,” Sepe says, color rising in his cheeks, and practically runs into the restroom.

**v. man i had to do it just in case**

The 18-19 season starts, as always, with camp.

Unlike always, it also starts with Sepe avoiding him. After not calling. All summer.

All the communication they had was shallow comments on instagram posts and one single text: 

_I need some time to think about it, sorry._

And now Teuvo’s not sure anymore if Sepe needs more time still or if his own idiocy has ruined things forever, but he needs it to go back to normal. 

He goes downstairs to Sepe’s apartment after practice. Sepe slams the door in his face. But then he opens it again.

Sepe hauls Teuvo inside, slams the door behind them, surges forward, kisses Teuvo, hot and heavy and wanting, and maybe they should try talking first, but Teuvo finds that he just can’t bring himself to care.

**vi. i’m about to bring it home (this one’s for you)**

Christmas is so much better when he and Sepe are together, cuddling on the couch, legs twining together, the smell of ham and his mother’s carrot casserole wafting from the kitchen as they murmur to each other about nothing in particular. It surprises him, when he thinks about it: they never run out of things to say to each other.

When he says as much, Sepe laughs, kissing him gently, and Teuvo thinks: _This is the best Christmas ever_.

**Author's Note:**

> \- Title and subtitles taken from "Raise Up" by Petey Pablo, which was chosen via fan poll in summer 2018 as the Hurricanes' new goal song.  
> \- Various game and contract dates, scores, and results are all as accurate as possible.  
> \- [Yes, they're really that messy.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIPMIzIRdbw&feature=emb_title)  
> \- [And yes, Aho lived directly underneath Teravainen as recently as a year ago.](https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article223512960.html)  
> \- The last 35 words took three weeks to write, so that was an unpleasant feeling.


End file.
